Pride & Prejudice: Plus Two
by LetMeBeFree
Summary: What happens when two girls from 21st Century America get pulled into Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice? Will they ever get home? Will they ever want to leave?


Disclaimer: I do not own any of Jane Austen's wonderful creations. If I did, not only would I be very wealthy, but I would also be dead.

"_It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."_

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've heard the line a million times, read it a million times more and still think it's lacking, Lori. A man with a fortune is in want of a wife, but also her figure, her way of being submissive, and air headedness. They never want her intelligence, her pride, or anything that a woman should be born with or learn," I said as I opened the car door and climbed out of the odd European car we had rented once getting off the plane. I looked around the countryside I had been gazing at all afternoon as we drove, and was still impressed by its beautiful simplicity. I had been waiting three long years to see the place, to finally come here and breathe in the air of Hertfordshire. Now that I was finally here it was a hard thing to truly accept, though I was certainly aware of my aching bones from the long plane ride and the bumpy roads that had went under the car's tires.

I jumped when Lori spoke right next to me; I had been so lost in the view that I hadn't heard her. "Quinn, you're being a cynic." I turned to her, taking in her petite five foot four inch frame, the blonde hair set in victory rolls, the red lipstick, the tattoos that were everywhere, the angel kiss piercing on her lip, and smiled. Everything about her was familiar to me, though strange and wondrous to everyone else, like an outcast. Of course, my California blonde hair, eyebrow and lip piercing along with a few tattoos wasn't very normal either. We made a good pair of best friends, for sure.

"I'm always a cynic," I said as a smile spread out along my face as we looked at the hotel we would be staying in, a quaint but obviously well kept place. We had been researching for months, trying to figure out where exactly Merryton would have been in Hertfordshire, and then Longbourn. We hadn't really been able to pin point much of location, so we were going to tour the entirety of Hertfordshire in general. Pride and Prejudice was a passion, obsession of ours in a way that none of Jane Austen's other books had been, though we loved them. "Let's get our stuff and go inside, I want to go on a walk before we go to bed tonight, you game?"

"Yeah, sounds good," Lori said as we turned back to the car and started to unload our bags, over stuffed with too many clothes, make up, and hair accessories. We had never really been good at the whole 'traveling light' thing, but we liked that about each other. Of course, when you're a whole ocean away from your home, a small town called Springdale, Ohio, you need to feel secure. When I say feeling secure, I mean bringing all those little things you don't really need but will remind you of home.

We rolled our bags inside and checked in at the front desk with an odd elderly man who smiled at us while one eye whirled in his head, apparently unseeing. Being polite, I ignored it and spoke kindly to him while he led us to the room of the small bed and breakfast, and we thanked him before going inside. The room itself was wonderful; there were was kings sized bed, a mini fridge, a bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub, a small kitchen, even a couch and a decent sized T.V. It reminded me of the hotels back home, so some of my unease of being so far away faded.

Now, don't get me wrong. I had wanted to go to England since I had been thirteen years old and read Pride and Prejudice for the first time. I had dreamed about it often ever since, even dreamed myself up with the sweet and sensitive Mr. Bingley, I hadn't been a Mr. Darcy kind of girl. Her inner fire that made our friendship so spirited would have been well suited for him. Nevertheless, I was finally here, and I wasn't going to waste one minute of my time.

"Lori, hurry up and let's go!" I called, going to the mini-fridge and taking out a bottle of water. As I stuffed the thing into my oversized purse, I walked towards the bathroom, my shoes padding softly against the carpet. She was fixing her hair, putting hairspray into it to keep it looking perfect, though it already was. Her blue eyes met my green through the mirror, and she gave me an exasperated sigh. I had already put my contacts in, so I had a set of sunglasses on top of my head.

My eyes wandered to my reflection and I took in her tiny frame and my not so tiny one. It made me sigh, that was one of the few things we were opposite in. I had never been a small thing growing up, and I had never been a normal sized girl either. I had always struggled with my weight, and even now it was a problem. I wasn't jealous of Lori though, I just sometimes wish I could lose a few pounds, you know?

"Eh! Quinn, I said I'm ready," Lori was saying to me as I blinked several times and turned to her, an apologetic look on my face.

"Sorry, you know-"

"-you have A.D.D. Yes, dear, now can we go walk?" Lori asked, smiling up at me as she grabbed her purse as well. I gave her a nod, smiling, and linked my arm through hers and tried hard to focus on what she was saying. She was talking about her fiancé, Joe, who was back at home and she would have to call later. One thing I really liked about her was how she didn't get crazy about boyfriends. Most girls would insist that he had come with them, but she had known how special this was, and we had gone on our own. Of course, Lori was far too amazing a friend to be titled as one; she was more like a sister.

We got outside fast enough, and we started talking seriously about where we should go first. We were out in the middle of the country side, so just admiring nature seemed like a good enough idea to the both of us. We decided to only head out about a mile though, a straight walk forward so we could easily retrace our steps. The idea of getting lost in the middle of nowhere in England with no cell phone service was certainly not something I was up for.

"… And about our conversation in the car, I still think it's ridiculous," I said as we continued to walk through the waist high grass. I was holding my very nice and very expensive camera, taking pictures of everything worth a click of the capture button. It was close to sunset and the meadows were cast with a golden glow. They had passed a small pond, a few gatherings of trees here and there, and even some cattle fenced in a little ways off. "Darcy couldn't really have been all that in love with Elizabeth. I mean, they barely knew anything about each other, or at least, not enough to call it love."

"That's one of the things that make the story so wonderful. They didn't know much about each other but Darcy simply knew that no matter what, he was in love with her," Lori protested, as she always did when I questioned the validity of Darcy and Elizabeth's feelings for each other.

I neared a gathering of trees as I gave a snort of laughter at her idea, it still didn't completely sit with me. I started to part the trees and walk through the wall of greenery as I said, "Darcy seemed like an asshole to me, always looking down his nose and being all high and mighty. Elizabeth fell in love with that, but waited to get with him until he changed. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Darcy was really just a- Whoa! Lori, come look!"

Still standing before us was a house, a decaying and crumbling house that in its day must have been beautiful. As I looked at it, I felt chills running down my spine, something tickling the inside of my memory as if… as if this place was familiar. I heard Lori step lightly up beside me as she said, "What did you… Oh my God, it's…"

"Amazing," I breathed, not wasting another moment and pushing myself forward, closer to jogging than walking now. I wasn't very far away, so it took very little time to find myself standing in front of it, looking up at the crumbling bricks and where the paint had faded away. It would be considered quite large now, but from the time it came from it would have been a very humble home.

It dawned on me then why it looked so familiar.

"Lori, it looks like the Bennet's house!" I exclaimed as I turned around to see her walking through the tall grass, hurrying the rest of the way to me.

She looked from the astonished look on my face to the house, and then did a double take of it when she had started to turn away. "It does have an odd resemblance, but I highly doubt-"

I was already making my way towards the front door, a burning determination to grab the door handle pulsed inside of my hand. I had to try; I had to see if the door to this house would open, to see what lay inside. I didn't care that it could be dangerous; I didn't care about anything at that exact moment. It was as if something had taken over my body, a woman driven by her desire to know. "I'm going to see if we can get in."

"Quinn! It could be dangerous in there!" Lori yelled, running after me and grabbing onto my arm, trying to pull me to a stop. Seeing that was I about five feet six inches and a whole lot heavier than her, the idea was almost comical.

I turned to her, my eyes looking straight into her own. From the look on her face, she could obviously see there was no way I was going to leave without checking it out. "Lori, what if this is the house? What if this is actually the place where Elizabeth Bennet was born and raised? What if it _was_ real? What if these people actually existed?"

"That's nearly impossible, don't you get that? What are the odds that we just happen to leave our hotel, walk for only half an hour, and find a place that is supposed to be fictional? Seriously, you could get yourself hurt for nothing," Lori tried to reason, but I could barely hear her. My eyes had wandered back to the house, something stirring deep inside me when I saw it. The odds and impossibilities meant nothing to me then, only getting inside.

"I don't care, I'm doing it," I said stubbornly, taking the five necessary steps to the old and battered door. It was so beaten down by the elements it would probably be nothing to pull it from its hinges. I reached out, my palms sweating with anticipation as it neared the weathered door knob. I could hear Lori saying something in a not so nice tone, but I couldn't discern what it was as my hand closed over the knob.

I felt her hand grip mine and try to pull me away as I twisted the knob. I paid her no mind, because at that exact moment the door swung open effortlessly.

Author's Note: I really hope you liked it! I know the first chapter is a bit short and rushed, but I simply couldn't wait to really get into the story that I've thought up with the help of my friend, Lori! I hope I have tons of time so I can keep updating, and I hope that I can get some positive feedback! See ya in chapter two!


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